Essay Film Festival 2018: Vivienne Dick

27 Mar 2018

This screening is followed by a conversation between Vivienne Dick and the filmmaker and writer Bev Zalcock

This programme brings three recent films by Vivienne Dick into a dialogue with a key earlier work in her oeuvre. Fusing elements of performance, documentary and home movies, Dick is a filmmaker whose work continues to evade categorisation.

Born in Donegal in 1950, Vivienne Dick studied at University College, Dublin, before moving to New York in the late 1970s where she was part of a group of filmmakers whose affiliation to the music and aesthetic of punk became known as 'No Wave'. Working mainly on Super 8, Dick's films from this period feature many musicians from the punk movement such as Lydia Lunch, James Chance, Pat Place, Adele Bertei and Ikue Mori.

She returned to Ireland in 1982 and then moved to London in 1985, where she was a member of The London Filmmakers Coop for many years and produced a number of films in 16mm and video. Her films have been screened at cinemas, museums and film festivals internationally, including Tate Britain, the Whitney in New York, IMMA in Dublin, and the Edinburgh and Berlin Film Festivals. Her work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art and Anthology Archives, NYC and the Irish Film Archives. She now lives in Galway, Ireland, where she teaches and continues to make films.

Programme

Red Moon Rising, dir. Vivienne Dick, Ireland, 2015, HD video, 15 minutesA celebration of the carnivalesque through dance, performance and the spoken word. The film reaches towards a renewal of our embodiment with the Earth as a response to a belief in invincibility, and the desire of Man to dominate the planets. A red moon is both a beacon, and a warning.

The Irreducible Difference of the Other, dir. Vivienne Dick, Ireland, 2013, Digibeta tape, 26 minutes This work questions what it means to be human in a world orientated towards war, terror and consumption. Key historical moments are referenced, including opposition to the Iraq war, the Arab Spring and recent anti-austerity protests, proclaiming the desire for a world which is more balanced, and with less exploitation and destruction.

Augenblick, dir. Vivienne Dick, Ireland, 2017, HD video, 13 minutes The film, whose title means 'blink of an eye' or 'an instant', reflects on what it means to be human in a post-human world. Moving from The Age of Enlightenment into a digital world, what becomes of our relationship to each other and to the earth?

Visibility: Moderate, dir. Vivienne Dick, USA, 1981, Digibeta tape, 38 minutes Using Super-8 film as a parody of the 'travelogue', Dick takes an expatriate look at her homeland. The quaint perception of Ireland and the Americanisation of the native culture are contrasted with interviews from sectarian prisoners and footage of political marches.